The first one is free...

We're on our way to Croatia, checking in at the gate for the nonstop flight Salt Lake to Paris. The gate agent checks our passports, which is why we had to go up to the counter in the first place. Then she asked for our boarding passes, and suggested that we make a donation to Salvation Army this coming Christmas. Huh? Then she handed us two new boarding passes.

After we left the counter, I noticed that we had been moved up to the front of the plane in Business Elite class. Sweet! I had never heard of getting upgraded for free on an international flight. We're only silver medallion on Delta, so not like we have gazillions of miles. The flight is full, with a standby list, so obviously Business Elite didn't sell out and they upgraded some of us to make room in the back.

So this should be pleasant experience, arriving in Paris after a comfortable 10.5 hour flight. Jill says,"hmm, what if we get to liking this too much?" The first one is free, as the saying goes...

-- Ray

Jackson Lake - Spalding Bay

A gorgeous day in the valley, time to get out on Jackson Lake for one more day of sea kayaking. I had never paddled around the southern end of Spalding Bay, so I remedied that with a trip from the Spalding Bay launch, around the southern end and over almost to South Landing. (Oh yes, and back). Saw two golden eagles that were hanging out on one of the dot islands at the very south end of the bay, unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out very well. I also saw an old pile of bear scat on one of the beaches, and wolf tracks in the sand on another beach.

Phillips Pass

After spending all morning and part of the afternoon on chores and such, we needed to get out for some exercise on a gorgeous August day. We'd heard that the fireweed bloom was looking pretty good up on Phillips Pass, so decided to go for a late afternoon hike up there. A perfect day, warm but not too hot, the fireweed was looking good.

Phillips Pass at EveryTrail

River of No Return

Another river trip! We did a 7-day trip on the Main Salmon, courtesy of Mike's daughter Alice who scored a launch permit in the lottery. Eighty miles from Corn Creek to Carey Creek, we spent one night indoors at the China Bar Lodge. The weather was mostly good except for the night at China Bar; we would have been cooking in the rain that night, so a great rib dinner indoors was quite a treat.